Show us your education policies!

By Winged Rodent

In less than five months we will be staring down the barrel of an election and we are still pretty much in the dark when it comes to details of the major parties’ education policies.

Yesterday QPEC (Quality Public Education Coalition) unveiled a website devoted to analysing the education policies of the main political parties: http://www.qpec.org.nz/Election-2008.html

The Green Party, The Maori Party and United Future have all given detailed answers to questions put to them, but Labour and National have remained suspiciously silent.

National at least took a stab at answering some of the questions, but in an astoundingly vague manner.

In answer to the question: “Does National believe that smaller class sizes throughout our schools would produce better educational outcomes?  If so, does it have a strategy to reduce class sizes, and if so, what number would it consider an optimal maximum?”

The response was: “National will release policy in regard to this issue before the election.”

The party’s answer to: “Will National overhaul the NCEA. If not what changes will National implement for the NCEA?” was “National will release policy in regard to this issue before the election.”

To “Does National intend to expand and/or increase funding to the network of integrated schools (as distinct from private schools)?” the answer was, you guessed it…
“National will release policy in regard to this issue before the election.”

In fact, a quick tally shows that out of 20 questions put to the party by QPEC, 13 of them were answered with some form of “National will release policy in regard to this issue before the election.”

Labour on the other hand, after lauding its Schools’ Plus plan as the answer to many of the problems faced in the education sector today, has provided nothing – despite being presented with the questions more than two months ago.

QPEC believes this is unacceptable from both parties, saying:
“Education is a critical issue and one where we expect major differences to emerge between the parties. The public deserves this information to digest, debate and discuss these differences NOW instead of having policy dumped into a crowded public domain in the run-up to the election”.

We at the PPTA agree. It’s time both parties fronted up with specifics on their key education policies. 

“We will release policy in regard to this issue before the election”, just does not cut it.